SQ Engineering - Arcade Machine

Arcade machine

Although many years ago I dreamed of buying a retro arcade game for my future house my ideas changed very quickly when I found out about emulated arcade games using a program called MAME. This meant with the shell of an arcade machine I could have a PC running through emulation all the original titles, some of them being not so old. This project was started in 2003 and it was left for many years without any work being done to it due to 'accommodation problems'. Recent resurrected it should be running shortly.

The Beginning:

By sheer coincidence I found a gutted cabinet outside an amusement sales/repairs shop. They where happy for to take it for free and I ended up buying a control panel off them so it worked in their favor. As shown below on the left the shell looked reasonable enough when I first picked it up, which was surprising as I did pull it out of a heap. Cleaned up and gutted (bottom right) it showed itself to be in strangely good condition, no real scratches or anything of the like.

Modification:

After being gutted I made a control panel to suit what I chose for the button layout at the time. This first photo shows the second panel I made as I had to remake it (see next section). From here I mounted a TV in place and covered the screen. I also added a perspex screen which I regrettably tinted.

Main Control Layout:

With the original inside dimensions being only 640mm wide this cabinet was originally designed to either be a single player machine or for a game with only one or two buttons for each player. Making this suit two players with a large selection of buttons was going to be difficult. To do so I quickly abandoned the traditional layout of the two players side by side with both arms straight forward and parallel. I needed to house a multitude of buttons in this restricted space so I had to come up with something different. I figured that a person would in a natural state hold their arms on an angle pointing inwards and with their body facing the screen, so I designed a layout where both players had their arms in natural position whist facing the center of the screen. Demonstrated in the disproportionate and poorly drawn diagram below on the left; the first players right arm and the second players left arm are parallel. With this arrangement both players should be comfortable, not interfere with each other whist still having provision for a large selection of buttons. The middle picture shows the control panel painted with some of the components in place.

Due to the machine being used with multiple titles with many differing button layouts something universal needed to be chosen. Originally I was going to go for a classic 6 (3 x 2) button layout (ie: Street fighter 2), however some games such as those from Neo Geo (ie: King of fighters) are designed to use 4 buttons in a single row. Now even though one button in another row could easily be set to do the same job it would not work as special moves often require holding multiple buttons at a time. So I decided to stick with the 6 button design but add an additional button in the bottom row to the far right, this is shown in the right picture below. Unfortunately I had already made a control panel and it was not physically possible to add another button where I wanted it, so I had no choice but to made another panel.

Also instead of the usual outer buttons in line and the middle raised I once again decided to do something more ergonomic. For this I worked out the minimum spacing needed, drew lines with that spacing on paper and then with my fingers laid on top I measured where they ended up. This gave me somewhat of a curve shape and sure it looks unusual but it should mean that my fingers should have a higher chance of landing where they should every time, and with my lack of co-ordination everything helps. How seasoned arcade players will react to this will be interesting, I suspect they will like it though.

Change of Joysticks and Buttons:

After spending years being temporarily abandoned my arcade machine and it's associated parts where not necessarily in the same place anymore. Only some of the switches where there and who knows where my Joysticks ended up. So I ended up ordering new parts for everything.

Not wanting to modify the panel for a different type of joystick again I had a look around and I found a single type on ebay that was a direct bolt in job. It had a two year warranty, was adjustable from a 4-way to 8 way action (non gated) and also had two different height adjustments. I also read the auction site a few times to make sure the price was right as it was incredibly cheap. These joysticks are shown pictured below on the left. To the bottom of in the picture shows the shaft as it arrives with the various spacers, the spacer on the far left by itself and the one on the far right are what set the joystick height, I chose the lower height for quicker response with a shorter but less controlled throw. If I was pedantic I could modify the joystick on my lathe and make my own spacers to have any height of shaft that I wanted, I doubt I would have the need but it's nice to know. The hour-glass shaper spacer in the middle of the shaft is flipped from its current position (4-way use) to an upside down position to convert it to the common 8 way use. I can't see myself really have a need for a 4 way joystick so I am guessing I won't change this any time soon. All this is held in place with a C-clip/AKA: Jesus clip (Jesus!! where did that go?). This one clip holds everything in place is removed then replaced for any changes. If I was changing to and from 4 to 8 way use I would probably just fit a outside circlip and leave some circlip pliers handy to speed things up a bit. Now testing the joystick in feel it seems to have an easy but definate switching, I really look forward to testing them out as I have high hopes.

From the same seller I bought a whole range of buttons which the pink coloured type are shown below on the right. These where also dirt cheap and where different from the usual traditional type. Instead of being the classic concave shape they had a slightly rounded curve off being almost flat. I was initially quite apprehensive of them as they had an internal switch instead of the usual external swappable micro-switch. On testing though I found that these where much more direct and easier to push than any other button I had used, they felt great. They are rated at 10,000,000 clicks each which if it is even somewhat correct will mean I never have to work on them again.

Below left shows the new buttons and joysticks installed ready for use.

A special thanks to the Ebay seller Phil (tonkadaddy) and his store 'Fair Dinkum Tool Sales' for his great service and offering products at such amazing prices.